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Only legitimate daughter of Henry I to whom the Crown was promised in her father's lifetime. On her father's death Stephen was elected. In 1139 her half brother, Earl Robert of Gloucester, and Miles Gloucester rebelled from King Stephen in her favour. Stephen was defeated and captured in February 1141 and Matilda, the widow of the Emperor of Germany, began her short reign as Empress of the English. Her ill temper and brutal manner soon exasperated the English and she was chased out of London and by the end of 1142 she had been reduced to control of much of the South and West of England, King Stephen, released from captivity continuing his reign. Normandy was taken from Stephen by Matilda's second husband, Geoffrey of Anjou in 1144, both titles passing to their son, another Henry.
Burke says she was betrothed in her eighth year (1119) to Henry. She was recalled to Henry's court in 1125 after the death of her husband, Emperor Henry V of Germany; Henry forced the barons to swear they would accept Matilda as Queen upon Henry's death. She was then forced to marry the sixteen-year-old Geoffrey of Anjou (founder of the Plantagent dynasty) in 1128 to continue the Angev in alliance. The marriage was unpopular with the Norman barons, but Matilda and Geoffrey produced a male heir, prompting Henry to force another oath from the barons in support of Matilda, and on his death (1135), Stephen seized the throne and Matilda invaded England (1139) inaugurating a period of inconclusive civil war. She and he second husband (Geoffrey) captured Normandy and in 1152; the Treaty of Wallingford recognized Henry as Stephen's heir.